Brainworks is the captivating companion book to the three part National Geographic Channel series. The television program brings together a crack team of scientists and researchers from a wide range of fields, including neurology, psychology, and opthamology. The program makes the viewer the test subject in an array of astonishing challenges and experiments. Their brains will be stimulated, fooled, and ultimately amazed, as scientists and other experts show how this three-pound blob of gray matter effectively makes you, you.

The book further messes with the head through the visual illusions discovered and perfected by masters of fine art as well as through deceptively simple illustrations that are finely crafted by psychologists to highlight the way we take in and process the world around us.

In three sections–“Seeing,” “Thinking,” and “Being”–you’ll see for yourself why these visual illusions and experiments hoodwink the brain. You’ll find out how the structure of the eye influences what you see. And you’ll think of events that may not have actually happened, in order to learn how the mind can create a false memory.

Rather than simply displaying a collection of puzzlers or visual illusions, each chapter guides you through a series of perceptual and thought experiments firsthand and then walks you through your brain’s reaction in clear, user-friendly language–providing every reader with a compelling personal interest in finding out why his or her mind acts the way it does.

Smart, exciting, and deeply engaging, Brainworks pulls you in, manipulates your mind, and leaves you with a better understanding–as well as a richer appreciation–of the mental marvels that we take for granted.